Studying for verbal

[liquidice]

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So i am going to study for PCAT this summer and I know I will do bad on verbal if I don't study.

On the SAT I got a 450/800 on the English part. Analogy section was just impossible for me.

What is the best way to learn the words? Learn the roots? What resources should I use to learn them? I can probably learn about 1000 words this summer and I am not even sure if that would be a complete waste of time.

 

[snvplayer]

I think you can't expect sudden surge in your verbal score w/i short period of time. A lot of reading, and memorizing vocabs on a daily basis, then reviewing those vocabs you have memorized.

I am an international student, so this task is probably less tedious and repetitive than native speakers..

Some of the books I have found useful are

1. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis.
-This book is some decades old I think. But I find it very very help in
learning roots. It describes each root and words and shows usage as well.
I went through it twice, and plan to go over it 2~3 more times.

2. Word Smart I,II by Princeton Review
These books are somewhat like simpler version of Word Power Made Easy.
They don't really introduce roots or prefixes, but they provide simple
definitions and usage of each word.
I have heard that they have Word Smart GRE as well.

3. Reading TIMES, and National Geographic. (or other magazines if you have
time). I find reading TIMES very helpful..Whatever words I don't know I
would highlight and look it up later and keep track of them.
Reading some sociology books or classic novel is a great means to improve
your vocab.

When studying vocab, I tried to be active. Not only would I try to memorize the exact definition of words, but also, I tried to make a short sentences out of them, and think of in which situation I'd use them. I say them out loud, write them down a few times. Once I "studied" the vocabs, then I just read through the definitions periodically so I don't forget them.
Right now, I can afford time to do these all these. But once I am in school I plan to just go through 10~15 vocabs a day and review them at the end of each week. Reviewing is the most important thing.

 

[binghamkid]

If you are memorizing vocab, make sure you focus on secondary meanings. The PCAT exam really likes to use analogies that don't make sense unless you know the secondary definition.

 

[liquidice]

I think you can't expect sudden surge in your verbal score w/i short period of time. A lot of reading, and memorizing vocabs on a daily basis, then reviewing those vocabs you have memorized.

I am an international student, so this task is probably less tedious and repetitive than native speakers..

Some of the books I have found useful are

1. Word Power Made Easy by Norman Lewis.
-This book is some decades old I think. But I find it very very help in
learning roots. It describes each root and words and shows usage as well.
I went through it twice, and plan to go over it 2~3 more times.

2. Word Smart I,II by Princeton Review
These books are somewhat like simpler version of Word Power Made Easy.
They don't really introduce roots or prefixes, but they provide simple
definitions and usage of each word.
I have heard that they have Word Smart GRE as well.

3. Reading TIMES, and National Geographic. (or other magazines if you have
time). I find reading TIMES very helpful..Whatever words I don't know I
would highlight and look it up later and keep track of them.
Reading some sociology books or classic novel is a great means to improve
your vocab.

When studying vocab, I tried to be active. Not only would I try to memorize the exact definition of words, but also, I tried to make a short sentences out of them, and think of in which situation I'd use them. I say them out loud, write them down a few times. Once I "studied" the vocabs, then I just read through the definitions periodically so I don't forget them.
Right now, I can afford time to do these all these. But once I am in school I plan to just go through 10~15 vocabs a day and review them at the end of each week. Reviewing is the most important thing.

thank you very much for the info. I came to US from another country about 6 years ago so I am in a similar situation as an international student.

I am curious if you took the PCAT yet or SAT and if you did good on them using your studying strategy.

 

[omnione]

The key on the PCAT isn't to regurgitate definitions, it is to be able to relate two words together and apply that analogy to the answer choices to select the pair that most represents your analogy.

There were many problems on the PCAT where I wouldn't have been able to reproduce the exact definition. For example, I remember:

LORD: VASSAL

All I had to know that both referred to different ranking positions/people back in the old castle days with the peasants. I didn't have to know which outranked the other or what each position did. The answer I chose was quite clear.

 

[snvplayer]

thank you very much for the info. I came to US from another country about 6 years ago so I am in a similar situation as an international student.

I am curious if you took the PCAT yet or SAT and if you did good on them using your studying strategy.

Well I didn't do too well on SAT verbal section...500 was my best score and I probably averaged around 480. Looking at PCAT practice exams, I can see my vocab has inreased but still there are still a lot that I miss. From my experience, this is not sth I can improve in short amount of time.

But the books I recommended are pretty good, so you should at least take a look at them. And you can probably look for other good books at near book store..